Summary

Tokens decks have been majorly on the rise in the weeks before Pro Tour Ixalan, and the various variations of the deck each do something different, effectively housing many sub-archetypes within the main “tokens” archetype. These decks usually rely on a combination of dedicated token makers, as well as embalm and eternalize creatures. The deck we’re featuring today takes this deck in a different direction, becoming a dedicated embalm/eternalize deck that allows it to try to play over the top of other Tokens decks.

Like all of these tokens decks, Anointed Procession is a hugely important card to the overall strategy. Rather than aggressively attempting to cast a bunch of token makers to maximize the token output in the short term, Procession is used in this deck to play the long game, where each individual token provides value that is seriously powered up when doubled. One such card that Procession is very strong with is Champion of Wits. The 3 mana creature allows you to filter through cards on the front end and is massively card advantageous on the back end. Doubling that sort of effect is a recipe for success.

As for other embalm and eternalize creatures, this deck plays Anointer Priest, Sacred Cat, and Sunscourge Champion, all of which are good sources of life gain that become difficult to attack through for opponents and are great tools against the aggressive decks of the format. Adorned Pouncer is used mostly as a non-card advantage win condition, but it has good applications elsewhere. Holding it all together is Vizier of the Anointed. The rather innocuous 2/4 for 4 mana is at minimum a two-for-one, as it searches up another creature. At best, it sticks on the board for many turns and provides a must-answer source of card advantage. I’ll be adding a couple copies of Vizier of Many Faces, as copying a Vizier of the Anointed keeps the value train going and allows this deck to out-card advantage any opponent.

Fumigate is a slightly unintuitive addition to this deck, as the main goal of this deck is to draw cards and flood the board, but it’s an important role player. Against aggressive decks, having the ability to wipe the board and gain life is massive, and it’s never a bad idea for this style of deck to have a reset button against other decks. Legion’s Landing and Servo Exhibition are the only non-creature token makers in this deck. Legion’s Landing isn’t terribly exciting on its front end, but the back end provides an endless stream of tokens that slowly take over any board state. Servo Exhibition allows this deck to have good interaction in the early game that doesn’t become terribly irrelevant in the late game.